The present invention relates to a method and a system for placing and responding to published advertisements.
Many magazines and newspapers regularly publish special classified sections commonly referred to as "personals" in which parties wishing to form relationships with other parties may place ads. The typical ad describes the person placing the ad, the type of relationship desired, and the type of person he or she would like to meet. Other persons reading such ads and also wishing to form personal relationships, will contact the person who placed the ad if their interests appear to coincide. Contact is established between such persons by mail, generally sent to a blind post office box keyed to a code appearing in the ad. The post office box is usually managed by the magazine or newspaper.
Some people hesitate to use the "personals", even though they are interested in establishing relations, because of a perceived indignity in the process. Others feel uncomfortable about revealing personal information to a stranger. And there are some who will not respond to a "personals" ad because they feel that they are unable to communicate effectively in writing. Finally, for all of those who use the "personals", there is no way of eliminating a delay of a few days or more between the appearance of an ad and the contact between two interested parties.
The aforementioned copending patent application describes a telephone system that favorably alters the perception about individuals who use "personals" and thereby increases the number of people placing and responding to such ads, that provides a "personals" service in which confidentiality and anonymity of all parties can be preserved if desired, and that provides a "personals" service in which responding to an ad can be accomplished without using the mailed letter format. Additionally, the copending application describes a "personals" service which enables an immediate and direct contact between a person answering an ad and the subscriber who placed the ad, and which provides the subscriber with the ability to modify the parameters of the service via the telephone.
While the copending application provides many features never before available in a standard classified advertisement system, such as the "personals", there remains the need to minimize the size of the system while still providing adequate and substantially unlimited service, especially when maintaining direct telephone contact between many persons answering ads and many subscribers who placed the ads.